Artist Gnosis6

[B'Lark]

Good afternoon people!!

A good while back I asked around to see if somewhere had a cheap, dual-humbucker guitar that I could grab and have a bit of a much around with. Couple of guys here suggested Artist Guitars, and now I've finally gone and bought one. Arrived yesterday, but I was busy almost all day so didn't have much of a chance to play around with it past first impressions. But I will say, first impressions were pretty good.





The colour is very nice, in my opinion, and it's a very nicely figured veneer on top. I was half expecting it to be photo-Quilt, but it's definitely real maple.

[B'Lark]

Now I did get a Factory Seconds one. Partially because it was 25 bucks cheaper, but mostly because they didn't have any brand new ones in stock and I couldn't be bothered waiting the month or two till they were expected back in. The 100-day no questions asked returns policy still applies to the Seconds too!!!!

So in terms of the flaws with it that would have made it a Factory Second? Honestly the flaws are pretty small and not noticable from any distance.





There was two runs of clear-coat, one on the end of the fretboard and one on the inside of the electrics cavity



And a small chip in the paint on the headstock.

As well as a couple of scratches on the back of the body, which I couldn't really get on camera well.

Honestly, quite small stuff, and none of it puts me off the guitar at all.

[B'Lark]

Now, in terms of the rest of the guitar's quality. The guitar didn't come out of the box perfect, but hey it's from a warehouse I'm not gonna fault that too much. The neck had a slight backbow in it so I was getting a bit of buzz most of the way along the neck, and the tuning was out by a good chunk, but that's nothing that can't be fixed with some simple setup work.

Pickups seemed pretty decent in the bit of playing that I did. Nothing out of this world, but they sounded totally fine clean, and pretty clear while distorted, so that's all above board in my eyes. I did notice while I pulled the back cavity plate off that they are two-conductor though, so I will inevitably swap them out for something else if for no reason more than to add series-parallel switching. But I don't think I'll be in a massive rush.

On that topic too, the soldering work on the inside looked pretty damn neat! The wires are all a bit messy but I'm not one to judge on that front, my wiring jobs inevitably get the same way XD Pots are not perfectly smooth, just a tiny bit scratchy, but nothing awful, and the toggle switch feels quite solid (though the fact that it's part chrome while the rest of the hardware is black rustles my jimmies slightly)

I also feel the need to add, since I have some wrist issues and I hate skinny necks: The neck on this is nice and chunky, and it feels excellent to me. It's 22.72mm thick at the first fret, and 42.68mm wide at the nut. It's maybe a little wider than I'd personally prefer, but the thickness in the hand is very nice. The back of the neck is gloss too, which I like personally, but I know some people prefer the satin.

The only major things that I needed to deal with were:

The frets were not well polished at all, very scratchy as soon as I tried to do any bends. I polished them this morning, just with some steel wool and it seems to have largely fixed that up, but I've not fully strung it up and given it another going over yet.

The fretboard was also a bit dry looking. I gave it a going over with some Tru-oil because I still had some lying around and it looks much better, and hopefully will keep it in a much better state too.

There was a couple of small fitting issues too. A couple of both the front and back string ferrules are a bit loose because the holes are a smidge big. They stay in fine while the strings are on, but they come out fairly easily when the're off. Two of the tuners were also not quiiite screwed in totally securely, and wobbled back and forth a little, but again as soon as strings are on they will hold.

Hardware is the only qualm I have right now, but time will tell how that holds up. I've got a set of locking tuners hanging around so I'm not overly worried in that department.

But overall, that's a pretty damn solid-looking and feeling guitar for what, an hour's worth of work. As I say, I've not had time to really put it through it's paces, but it's very promising right now. And with the crazy good returns policy they have, they are absolutely worth checking out if you want something cheap to muck around with.

[wazkelly]

Good review B'Lark.

I should do the same on the Grungemaster I purchased a few months ago.

Have to agree they are a bit rough 'n' ready straight out of the box and need the usual action lowering, truss rod adjusting and intonation setting to get it to a playable state. Mine had a few scratchy surfaces in the finish on back of neck which came up fine with some 1500 grit W&D paper used dry. Action at nut is still a wee bit high as I am yet to find the time to swap out the stock plastic for a bone one.

Suspect the 2 wire HB PUP's in yours may be similar to the standard PBG kit ones which don't sound too bad. Surprisingly the Grungie came with Wilkinson P90's which sound awesome.

[B'Lark]

Thanks Waz!! Agreed, do a review!! I am interested in the Grungemaster myself, gotta get something with P90's at some stage!

Action on the Gnosis I was fairly happy with after tweaking it all but then I'm never too bothered by a slightly higher action. Finish didn't really have any flaws to speak of, I guess this variance is the tradeoff for the price haha

Wouldn't be shocked if the pups were the same, I would suspect there's a lot of overlap with unbranded pickups in kits and cheap guitars. But yea, definitely sounded solid. I know the Mockingbird STQ I bought a while back had pickups that I immediately wanted to swap out with better ones, and I had no inclinations along those lines, which is a good sign.

I have found a few uneven frets that have caused a couple of problems for me, so the guitar is back to un-strung for now. Trying to play the 14th fret on the high E gives me my 15th fret sounding, and I had a couple of spots that tap-out with bigger bends which I don't think should really happen with a 12" radius. I'll be looking in to sorting that over the next week or so. But the otherwise solid feel, colour, pickups and fat neck give me enough reason to put a bit of effort in to the guitar and get it up to scratch. Also I'm just a giant sucker for superstrats I think *shrug*

[B'Lark]

Alright update two.

Frets have been levelled now and I've been giving the Gnosis a bit more of a go. I do need to get a new nut, as the one attached is set a little low, so I need to set the action a bit higher than I might like, not absurdly high though.

Other than that, it plays quite nicely now. I very much appreciate how light it is, on account of the basswood body, as well as the chunky neck. Tuners haven't given me any real grief so far and hold their tune totally fine, so not in any rush to swap them out, and same with the tune-o-matic bridge.

Pickups are the only thing that I have some quarrel with. The bridge pickup has a tendency to reeeally try and drive things, so even on pretty clean settings it has a tendency to break up a little. I have found that without fairly neat and tidy distortion, chords and powerchords down the lower end (which is not THAT low, I'm only tuned half a step down) find themselves being a little muddy and bassy. Both of these issues are not drastic, and they can be worked around, but I've found that the pickups are just overall a bit picky about the settings they're being put through. So after all, they will be the second thing to replace, after the nut, which is a more pressing issue